Whirling toy

ABSTRACT

A toy in the form of an elongate member to be balanced vertically on the player&#39;&#39;s hand or finger and which, by rotary motion of the hand, can be made to whirl while being balanced. Weight centers in the toy are arranged so that the toy is dynamically balanced when the rotating axis is held vertically; but so that a centrifugal couple is formed when the lower end of the toy is moved in an arc around an imaginary vertical line that extends through the center of gravity of the toy when the device is held nearly vertically. In the preferred embodiment, the toy is composed of interconnected portions that include broad surface areas such, for example as different sections of a sheet material. The mass centers in that case are represented by the centroids at different areas of the toy. Two of the mass centers or centroids occur at vertically spaced points on one side of the rotational axis of the toy with the greater mass above. A third mass center is located on an opposite side of the rotational axis at a level intermediate the other two mass centers. That arrangement of the masses permits making the toy at low cost while facilitating the representation of various figures.

United States Patent Beaubien [54] WHIRLING TOY [72] Inventor: Thomas S. Beaubien, Palos Verdes,

Calif.

[73] Assignee: Miller C. Johnson, Manhatten Beach, Calif. a part interest [22] Filed: June 28, 1971 [21] Appl.N0.: 157,173

Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant ExaminerD. L. Weinhold Attorney-Nienow & Frater 1 Nov. 21, 1972 [5 7] ABSTRACT A toy in the form of an elongate member to be balanced vertically on the player's hand or finger and which, by rotary motion of the hand, can be made to whirl while being balanced. Weight centers in the toy are arranged so that the toy is dynamically balanced when the rotating axis is held vertically; but so that a centrifugal couple is formed when the lower end of the toy is moved in an are around an imaginary vertical line that extends through the center of gravity of the toy when the device is held nearly vertically. In the preferred embodiment, the toy is composed of interconnected portions that include broad surface areas such, for example as different sections of a sheet material. The mass centers in that case are represented by the centroids at different areas of the toy. Two of the mass centers or centroids occur at vertically spaced points on one side of the rotational axis of the toy with the greater mass above. A third mass center is located on an opposite side of the rotational axis at a level intermediate the other two mass centers. That arrangement of the masses permits making the toy at low cost while facilitating the representation of various figures.

10 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTED W21 I973 3.703, 049

"IIIIIJIIIIA I INVENTOR THOMAS S. BEAUBIEN WW/734i ATTO RNEYS WHIRLING TOY This invention relates to improvements in toys and it relates particularly to toys of a kind that are balanced on the hand and can be made to rotate while balanced.

It is an object of the invention to provide an attractive toy that is inexpensive to produce. Another object is to provide a toy which appeals to a number of different classes of toy buyers and which is producible in a variety of forms having separate appeal. More particularly, it is an object of the inventionto provide a toy that can be employed in playing a game at more than one skill level and which can also serve as a novelty item.

These several objectives are met by the invention in the provision of a toy in the form of an elongate member capable of being balanced on the hand and which can be made to rotate or whirl about a vertical axis while being balanced. The sections or parts of that member are proportioned and located along its length such that the member is dynamically balanced while rotating on its rotational axis in the circumstance in which that axis is vertical but so that a centrifugal couple is easily developed while the member is held substantially in static balance. In general, the caricature artist prefers to emphasize the head and torso portions of the human and animal characters he seeks to depict. Forming the toy of a material having substantial uniform density and providing a shape that results in optimum arrangement of the mass centers also provides a structure which lends itself to using those areas to form caricatures. Thus, the invention provides to the caricaturist, and to the novelty maker, a skill toy as a medium in which to work. On the other hand, the invention provides to the toy maker an opportunity to employ novelty to add sales appeal to a skill toy.

Several embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawing. Those embodiments illustrate the preferred mode of practicing the invention and they were selected to facilitate understanding of the structural nature of the invention. It will be appreciated that by modifications in coloring and by adjustment of shape a wide variety of human and animalfigures can be depicted. It is not necessary, of course, that any caricature be shown and, indeed, the drawings show embodiments in which no character or figure or symbol is represented.

In those drawings:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a toy embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the lower bearing end of the toy of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views in side elevation of opposite sides of an alternative form of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the toy shown in FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 6 is a view in side elevation of yet another form of the invention; and v FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the toy of FIG. 6.

In FIG. 1, the toy is shown to comprise an essentially elongate structure formed of several parts. At its bottom end it comprises a short axle 12 of relatively small diameter which fits into a bearing 14 fixed to the lower end of a shaft 16. The shaft is rotatable about the axle. A number of arms extend outwardly from the shaft 16 at various points along its length and weights are attached to the ends of those arms. Thus, arm 21 extends normally from shaft 16 and has a mass or weight M1 connected at its outer end. Mass or weight M2 is connected at the outer end of arm 22. Mass or weight M3 is connected at the end of arm 23. Similarly, masses or weights M4 orMS are connected at the ends of arms 24 and 25, respectively. In this embodiment the several masses have the form of spheres although that is not essential to successful practice of the invention.

Further, arms 21, 22 and 23 lie in a common plane that extends through the central axis of the shaft 16. Thetwo arms 24 and 25 lie in a common plane that includes'that central axis of shaft 16. The plane of arms 24 and25 is perpendicular to the plane containing arm 21, 22 and 23. The length of the arms and the weight of the several masses are arranged so that the center of gravity of the unit is approximately one-third of the way down from the top and so that that center of gravity lies on the central axis of shaft 16. Therefore, the structure will be in balance when the shaft 16 extends vertically upward from the surface 30 on which the pin 12 is shown to be resting. One way to use the toy as a game is to substitute the users for the surface 30 and to attempt to balance the unit by holding the shaft 16 with its axis vertical. I

The bearing 14 is associated with the pin 12 in a way that permits easy rotation of the shaft 16 relative to the pin 12. In this embodimentythe axle 12 is a pin having a rounded lower end and cylindrical upper end which is trapped within the bearing 14 and whose upper end bears against the central downwardly extending dimple of a bearing plate 15. That construction is illustrated in FIG. 2. Any construction which facilitates rotational motion of the shaft 16 about its axis may be employed.

The several masses M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5 are arranged so that the centrifugal forces Fl, F2, F3, F4 and F5 they develop add algebraically to zero when the toy is rotating about the vertically held axis of shaft 16. In that circumstance there is no centrifugal couple to upset the balance. Once rotating, the toy will continue to rotate as long as the shaft is held vertically until its momentum is dissipated in windage and friction at the bearing 14. However, a centrifugal force couple will be developed if the lower end of the rod 16 is moved in an arc around a vertical extending through the center of gravity of the unit. Such a motion is easily produced by rotating the hand in a circle below the toy after it has been balanced. The creation of such a couple will result in rotation of the toy. Once rotating, it will continue to rotate until stopped by friction and windage. The task is then reduced to balancing in the same way that was necessary to maintain static balance and to recreating the couple from time to time to restore rotational momentum.

The three weights M1, M2 and M3 are all different and they are spaced at different points along the length of the shaft 16 as well as being placed on opposite sides of that shaft. The requirement for dynamic balance is that the sum of forces F1 and F3 equal the force F2 when the apparatus is rotating about the axis of shaft 16. It is not essential to dynamic balance that these weights lie in the same plane, or that any weights that do not lie in the plane with the others must be placed on opposite sides of the center of gravity. It is possible to achieve dynamic balance with weights placed at different heights along the shaft and placed in a variety of radial directions from that shaft. However, in the preferred form of the invention, the masses or mass centers that are to be relied upon to develop the centrifugal couple by which rotation is started all lie ina' common plane. In the preferred embodiment, any

weight or mass center located outside of that plane is located in a perpendicular plane and has a counterpart of equal weight and at equal distance from the axis and is located such that a line connecting the masses or mass centers extends through the center of gravity of the unit. Masses M4 and M5 meet that condition.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, masses M4 and M5 are equal; they lie in the same plane and at the same distance from the central axis. They simply cancel one another in the static system. If they happen to be joined to the shaft at a point corresponding to the center of gravity of the toy, they will have no effect on dynamic balance. That condition is easily met in a toy formed of sheet material of uniform density or by a toy which is symmetrical about a vertical plane that extends through the rotational axis and is formed of a material whose density is relatively uniform. The first of these cases is illustrated in the embodiment of FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, whereas the second case is illustrated in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. In FIG. 5 the toy is made of sheet material. In FIGS. 6 and 7 it is made by joining together two half sections of three dimensional vacuum-formed sheets which are mere images one of the other.

Observation of FIG. 1 and the other figures will illustrate that the masses are arranged so that the center of gravity of the unit lies at a substantial distance from the lower end of the unit. The condition of static balance is most easily maintained when the mass center of the unit is distant from the balance point. This requirement suggests that the center of gravity of the toy should be as high as possible. However, some of the other objectives of the invention make it advantageous to move the center of gravity to an intermediate point. For example, the centrifugal couple required to initiate rotation of the toy requires the provision of mass centers that are spaced from one another along the height of the toy and in different radial directions from the rotational axis. That requirement is met without undue lowering of the center of gravity in FIG. 1 by providing a small mass center on one side of the axis near the lower end of the toy and a mass center of intermediate mass on the same side of the axis at an upper point. These are counterbalanced by a larger mass M2 at a lever between M1 and M3 on the opposite side of the In FIG. 1, that arrangement puts the center of gravity of the toy on the line connecting mass M4 with mass M5.

How that structural arrangement is manifested in a toy which, instead of lumped masses, has its mass distributed over a wider surface area is illustrated in FIG. 6. At the lower end of FIG. 6, the area, and therefore weight, on opposite sides of the imaginary line 34 is approximately equal and does not contribute materially to the static or dynamic balance or imbalance of the unit. Neglecting that portion, the toy is divided into three portions. The first of those portions is designated by the reference numeral 35; it lies tothe right of rotational axis line 34 at the upper end of the toy. A second portion 36 of the toy lies to the left of the axis 34 in its upper and mid regions. The third area 37 of the toy is that portion at the lower region and to the right of the line 34. The cross marks labeled C1, C2 and C3 represent the centroids of these sections respectively. They are the mass centers or the place where the mass canbe considered to be concentrated for the purpose of. determining centrifugal force when the toy is rotated. The position of the centroid C1, C2 and C3 corresponds rather closely to the position of masses M1, M2 and M3 in FIG. 1. Moreover, the distance of those several centroids from the rotational axis line 34 corresponds to the distance of masses M1, M2 and M3 from the center axis of shaft 16. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 6 and it is seen that the half 38 of the toy above the central axis 39 is like the lower half 40. The materials and the shape are the same so that the weight of those two halves is the same and the mass center of the two weights occurs in opposite directions and at equal distances from the axis line 34. That component of weight corresponds to the weights M4 and M5 in FIG. 1. Thus, the two embodiments are similar except that the masses are lumped in one case and not in the other. Since C1, C2 and C3 are merely mass centers, it will appear that the sections 35, 36 and 37 can have substantially different shapes and still be substantially equivalent in terms of mass distribution as the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 6. The requirement for weight distribution affords an opportunity to provide broad areas at the upper end of the toy that can be used for creating caricatures and conveying messages of various kinds.

In FIGS. 3 and 4 the toy depicts an animal. In this case the animal's eyes and mouth are different in appearance so that their appearance will change as the toy is whirled. Making it possible to incorporate such action graphics at minimum cost is another advantage of the invention. Moreover, the fact that the toy is twirling makes it possible to use centrifugal force to accomplish actual animation. In the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4, the animal is provided with a pair of cars 44 and 46 which are easily rotatable upon hinges 48 which extend parallel with the body of the toy. In FIG. 5, that body 50 is seen to comprise a flat sheet of material. This embodiment is also provided with a means similar to the axle l2 and bearing 14 by which any impediment to rotation because of frictional engagement of the toy with the hand is overcome. In this case, the pin 52 is not journaled in the lower end of the toy. Instead, it has a flat base which is intended to rest on the user's hand and the toy is balanced on the end of the pin. Returning to FIG. 6, it, too, has a lower pin by which friction between the toy and hand is minimized. In FIG. 6 the pin is identified by the numeral 60.

In the preferred form of the invention, the mass center C1 is above the mass center C2 and is on the opposite side of the rotational axis along with the mass center C3 which is near the lower end. Along the length of the toy the mass center C2 is substantially closer to the mass center C1 than it is to the mass center C3. In fact, in the preferred form, the center of gravity in FIG. 6) is a little more than two-thirds of the way up from the lower end of the toy and the mass centers C1 and C2 are located above that center of gravity. When the apparatus is made of a material which is substantially uniform in density over its entire area, the

preferred form of the invention has thirty parts of area and weight in the upper one-third of its length, parts of area and weight in the middle third of its length, and ten parts of its area and weight in the lower third of its length. That arrangement places the center of gravity slightly above the two-thirds mark along the length from the lower end point.

Although we have shown and described certain specific embodiments of our invention, we are fully aware that many modifications thereof are possible. Our invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except insofar as is necessitated by the prior art.

I claim:

1. A whirling, balancing toy comprising:

an elongate member having its center of gravity lying in an axis of rotation that extends through a point on the surface at one end of the member;

the member comprising a plurality, not less than three, of masses spaced along its length and having radii of gyration such that the centrifugal forces developed upon rotation of said elongate member about said axis cancel one another whereby the member is balanced about that axis;

one of the mass and radius of gyration of one of said masses being different than that of at least one other of said masses whereby an unbalanced centrifugal couple is developed and the member is made to rotate about said axis upon manipulation of the member by rotation of said point in a horizontal plane about a vertical extending through said center of gravity.

2. The invention defined in claim 1 in which the mass centers of said masses lie in a common plane together with the center of gravity of said member.

3. The invention defined in claim 2 in which said elongate member lies entirely on one side of said axis of rotation along a central region of its length.

4. The invention defined in claim 3 in which said member comprises three masses, the mass center of two of them lying at spaced points on one side of said center of gravity and the mass center of the other lying on the other side of said axis at a point opposite a point intermediate said two spaced mass centers.

5. A whirling, balancing toy comprising an elongate member having a rotational axis extending from its center of gravity to a point at one end of said member about which axis the member is rotatable when balanced on said point with the center of gravity vertically thereabove;

said member being substantially dynamically balanced for rotation about said axis and having a plurality of mass components distributed unevenly in the direction of the length of said member and in distance from said axis of rotation whereby an unbalanced centrifugal couple is developed and the member is made to rotate upon rotary motion of said point about a vertical extending through said center of gravity.

6. The invention defined in claim 5 in which said toy is symmetrical about one plane containing said axis of rotation and is non-symmetrical about a second plane perpendicular to the first mentioned plane and intersecting it at said axis, said member comprising a greater volume on one side of said axis in upper and lower regions alon the len of said member and comprising greater vo ume on he opposite side of said axis in an intermediate region along the length of said member.

7. A whirling balancing toy comprising an elongate member formed of sheet material having a lower end point and being rotatable about an axis extending from said point through the center of gravity when the center of gravity is located vertically above said point, the area of said member lying along the upper third of its length being substantially equal to the area of said member lying along the lower two-thirds of its length, a greater part of the area of said member in the lower third thereof being disposed on one side of said axis of rotation, the centroid of the remaining area of the member on that side of said axis lying above the centroid of the area on the opposite side of said axis.

8. The invention defined in claim 7 in which the area of the upper third of said member comprises approximately thirty fifty-fifths of the area of the member and the area of the lower third thereof comprises approximately ten fifty-fifths of the total area of said member.

9. The invention defined in claim 6 which further comprises a pivot lying in said axis and rotatable relative to said member and connected to it at said point.

10. The invention defined in claim 6 in which the corresponding areas of the opposite sides of said member are colored difierently. 

1. A whirling, balancing toy comprising: an elongate member having its center of gravity lying in an axis of rotation that extends through a point on the surface at one end of the member; the member comprising a plurality, not less than three, of masses spaced along its length and having radii of gyration such that the centrifugal forces developed upon rotation of said elongate member about said axis cancel one another whereby the member is balanced about that axis; one of the mass and radius of gyration of one of said masses being different than that of at least one other of said masses whereby an unbalanced centrifugal couple is developed and the member is made to rotate about said axis upon manipulation of the member by rotation of said point in a horizontal plane about a vertical extending through said center of gravity.
 1. A whirling, balancing toy comprising: an elongate member having its center of gravity lying in an axis of rotation that extends through a point on the surface at one end of the member; the member comprising a plurality, not less than three, of masses spaced along its length and having radii of gyration such that the centrifugal forces developed upon rotation of said elongate member about said axis cancel one another whereby the member is balanced about that axis; one of the mass and radius of gyration of one of said masses being different than that of at least one other of said masses whereby an unbalanced centrifugal couple is developed and the member is made to rotate about said axis upon manipulation of the member by rotation of said point in a horizontal plane about a vertical extending through said center of gravity.
 2. The invention defined in claim 1 in which the mass centers of said masses lie in a common plane together with the center of gravity of said member.
 3. The invention defined in claim 2 in which said elongate member lies entirely on one side of said axis of rotation along a central region of its length.
 4. The invention defined in claim 3 in which said member comprises three masses, the mass center of two of them lying at spaced points on one side of said center of gravity and the mass center of the other lying on the other side of said axis at a point opposite a point intermediate said two spaced mass centers.
 5. A whirling, balancing toy comprising an elongate member having a rotational axis extending from its center of gravity to a point at one end of said member about which axis the member is rotatable when balanced on said point with the center of gravity vertically thereabove; said member being substantially dynamically balanced for rotation about said axis and having a plurality of mass components distributed unevenly in the direction of the length of said member and in distance from said axis of rotation whereby an unbalanced centrifugal couple is developed and the member is made to rotate upon rotary motion of said point about a vertical extending through said center of gravity.
 6. The invention defined in claim 5 in which said toy is symmetrical about one plane containing said axis of rotation and is non-symmetrical about a second plane perpendicular to the first mentioned plane and intersecting it at said axis, said member comprising a greater volume on one side of said axis in upper and lower regions along the length of said member and comprising greater volume on the opposite side of said axis in an intermediate region along the length of said member.
 7. A whirling balancing toy comprising an elongate member formed of sheet material having a lower end point and being rotatable about an axis extending from said point through the center of gravity when the center of gravity is located vertically above said point, the area of said member lying along the upper third of its length being substantially equal to the area of said member lying along the lower two-thirds of its length, a greater part of the area of said member in the lower third thereof being disposed on one side of said axis of rotation, the centroid of the remaining area of the member on that side of said axis lying above the centroid of the area on the opposite side of said axis.
 8. The invention defined in claim 7 in which the area of the upper third of said member comprises approximately thirty fifty-fifths of the area of the member and the area of the lower third thereof comprises approximately ten fifty-fifths of the total area of said member.
 9. The invention defined in claim 6 which further comprises a pivot lying in said axis and rotatable relative to said member and connected to it at said point. 